Assessing a school district’s long-term facility needs is an important and ongoing process. During the last 21 years, there have been four major facility need studies at Mid-Prairie conducted by four different facility committees. These committees consisted of community members, parents, students and district staff members.  At the end of each study, a list of recommendations was given to the Mid-Prairie School Board for their consideration.

The latest Facilities Committee of 52 members was formed in 2018. For approximately two years, this committee studied the district’s facility needs. The members gathered input from a wide variety of sources and even conducted focus groups for the staff members in each building. Two additional focus groups were held for middle school and high school students. As part of the process, a company was hired to do a district enrollment study. Representatives from Shive-Hattery and Carl A Nelson & Company also attended the meetings to be resources.  In January of 2020, this committee gave their recommendations to the school board. 

COVID brought any progress on these recommendations to a screeching halt. However, the committee’s recommendations were put back in front of the school board in February of this year. 

Since February, the school board has done its due diligence on the project recommendations. The board members reviewed the project options, investigated costs of the projects, discussed priorities and considered various funding sources.  This past November, the School Board reached a consensus on construction and renovation projects it would like to see happen at Mid-Prairie. 

Following are projects selected by the school board:

1) Construct new classrooms at the middle School, East Elementary, and high school. (This will also create space at West Elementary because the two sections of kindergarten at West will be moved to the new classrooms at East.)

2) Renovate the middle school commons area and the middle school family &  consumer science classroom.

3) Construct a new gymnasium and locker rooms at the middle school and renovate the old gym and locker rooms into additional classrooms, offices and storage areas.

4) Construct a new auditorium at the high school.

5) Construct a new wrestling and weight facility at the high school.

6) Install new lights on the softball diamond and repair and resurface the high school track.

7) Reconfigure and make improvements to the parking lots at East, West, and the high school.

Funding for these projects would total $37.62 million and come from a bond referendum, sales tax sources, and donations. A citizen’s committee recently met and is starting a petition drive for a bond referendum totaling $26.3 million. If they collect the necessary number of signatures by January 5, a bond issue vote will be put up to the district’s voters on March 1.

Obviously, if the citizen’s committee is successful, and a bond issue vote is put on a March 1 ballot, the district will use a variety of methods to inform potential voters about the specific details related to this issue prior to the vote. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to spend some joyful and relaxing time with family and friends during this holiday month.